


The Struggles of Liberty High

by harleywidow



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-29 04:44:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15065387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harleywidow/pseuds/harleywidow
Summary: Story with an original (female) character, Jack Atkins. Aha, the last name caught your eye. I see you. Twin of Jeff Atkins, whom her dad wished was a boy, so instead of getting over the fact that she wasn't, he gave her a /very/ boyish name, but she can live with that.





	The Struggles of Liberty High

Being a twin was hard to begin with, but add onto that, being a twin to Jeff Atkins was even harder. He was cute, popular, athletic. Not to mention their dad had wanted two boys, not a boy and a girl. And thus the name Jack came. Or Jackie, as most called her. Jeff and Jack, two half's of a whole. Two peas in a pod. Except, Jeff was always the favorite, always the best. She got an A on her test? Yeah, well, Jeff hit a homerun in practice today, move aside, Jack.

 

She had tranfered out of public school in 7th grade, and finished middle school on Online School, eventually going back to public in 9th grade, freshman year at Liberty Highschool. The first half year had been rough, but she found her friends, the people she hung around. As did Jeff, and, a lot of the time, they were a lot of the same people.

 

By the time Junior year rolled around, Jack would probably be labeled as one of the more popular kids. She wasn't rather fond of it, but it was whatever, she couldn't care less what people thought of her.

 

Now, to the story. Saturday night, it had to have been at least 2 in the morning, although Jack couldn't feel more awake.

 

"Walker, shut your lame ass up, jesus-" Jackie said.

 

"Does that inply that you like my ass? Whether it be lame or not?" Bryce had his signature grin on his face, the one that made girls want to drop their panties, and boys want to punch him in the jaw.

 

"You wish, man." She replied with a roll of the eye, before reaching over and grabbing the shotglass full of vodka, taking the shot, and setting it back down on the ground. "Alright, bitches, my turn."

 

This game they were playing was taking place at one of Bryce's parties, although, after most of the people had cleared out. People who didn't really want to be there had left, drunks had passed out. Now, there were only the 'cool' people, as Bryce referred to.

 

Now, what was the game, you ask? Well, glad you asked. They were trying to outdrink each other, simple as that. It had started as a game of never have I ever, but Bryce talked a lot of shit, and they somehow found each other in this position, 2 feet away at best, each sat with their legs crossed, one shotglass and a bottle of vodka in the middle of them.

 

Some of the people who had played never have I ever had wandered off, but a few were still here, to witness Bryce Walker's defeat. The ones that were still there were Jessica, Justin -although, they were tongue tied at the moment, they probably weren't paying attention- Alex, Zach, and Monty.

 

"You can always give up now." Jack began, before pouring a shot for him. If you could pour the shot without spilling, you could continue, if not, well, victory for the other. "there's nothing wrong with admitting defeat."

 

"Uh, yeah fucking right. I admit defeat, I might as well be more of a loser then, like, fucking Ryan or something." He rolled his eyes, and took the shot, letting out a small 'woo' before blinking 3 times, and pouring a shot for her.

 

This went on for a few more drinks, the two of them talking shit, leaning closer and closer with each sentence. Bryce had a look in his eyes, one not everyone would catch. Justin would, if he was paying attention, Monty did, and he only shook his head and grinned, and Zach did. unlike Monty, he didn't shake his head, or grin, he scowled. His jaw tightened, and he stood up, walking over to the two and hauling Andy up.

 

"Come on, Jack. You've had a lot to drink." Bryce attempted to protest, he began to stand up, but immediately fell down, as the alcohol had started to kick in. He fell backwards, into Monty, and they both laughed, which was the distraction Zach needed to pull her arm around his shoulder, and help her out of the room, to his car, eventually.

 

"What are you doing, Dempsey? I'm fine, let me go-" She cut herself off with a large yawn, not exactly doing anything physically to stop him. In fact, she eventually just gave up with trying to walk by herself, and leaned heavily on the other teenager, until he just rolled his eyes and picked her up. With one arm under her shoulders, and the other under her knees, he was now able to walk at a much faster pace.

 

She let out a small ground, arching her neck back, so far everything was upsidedown. Her actions produced a chuckle from Zach, along with a shake of the head.

 

"I think Jeff would kill me if I didn't get you home safe, so." He said, humor laced in his words, but he was dead serious, also. He helped Jackie into the passenger seat of the car, buckling her in before jogging around to the driver seat.

 

"Why would he kill you?" She asked, her words coming out slow, as if focusing on each and every one. And, it wasn't unlikely she was, seeing as she alone had half a bottle of vodka. "Its not like you're my boyfriend, or anything."

 

She said it so casually, as if even the thought of them being together was ridiculous. And it was! Of course it was, right?

 

Zach shook his head quickly, trying to rid his brain of any of those kinds of thoughts. "Yeah, no. Of course I'm not.. You know. No no. Just, you know, Jeff would kill /someone/ when he finds out his sister was passed out drunk at Bryce's, is all." He moved his head to the side, trying to hide the blush that was bound to be on his face.

 

Jack watched as he shook his head, and rambled on his response. She wasn't reallt paying attention to his words, but that /one/ goddamn piece of hair of his. The piece that was never stuck with the rest of it, so it bounced all over the place, especially when he shook his head. She wanted to twirl it around her fingers, but she wouldn't do that. She had too much pride for that.

 

She blinked a few times, quickly looking away when she realized she was staring, and at his hair, of all things. She cleared her throat, playing with the fringe of her shirt.

 

It was a pretty quiet ride to her house. Not necessarily awkward, just quiet. When they pulled up, the living room light was still on, but not from her parents -they were out of town- but from Jeff and his girlfriend, Leah. At least, that's what could be assumed. 

 

Zach just helped her to the door, instead of carrying her like last time. He opened the door, pushing it open with his foot, and the second it had done so, there was a large 'bang', someone must have knocked something over, not expecting anyone to be coming home.

 

Jack raised an eyebrow, walking around the corner to be met my Jeff, without a shirt on, mind you, almost uncomfortably close to her, as if trying to block their few of the living room. She only ducked down, looking though his arms to see Leah, on the couch, a pillow pressed into her chest. Jackie raised an eyebrow, giving her a short little wave before standing back up, arm around Zach's waist for support.

 

"Look, Jackie-" Jeff started, but she raised a hand, cutting him off. "I don't give a shit what you're doing with her, but on the couch? Really? I sit on that." She really didn't give a shit, he could do whatever he wanted, not much she could do. However, the fact that she wasn't mad made Jeff breathe a little easier. He let out a small chuckle, mostly out of relief, if anything.

 

"Alright, cool. Cool, cool, cool. Wait, are you- are you drunk?" A look of concern washed over his face, as if just realizing how much she was relying on Zach to not collapse. He reached forward, but she only swatted his arm away. "No, I'm not drunk. Bryce thought he could out drink me, and, well, I showed him." A large grin pressed its way on her lips, looking up at Jeff for his response.

 

Jeff only rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "Real stupid of him, you've been drinking since you're 13."

 

"That's what I said!" Jeff chuckled at this, as did Zach. Speaking of Zach, he'd been dead silent this whole time, as if nervous Jeff would actually hurt him.

 

"Dempsey, man, thanks for bringing her home. I'll take her, now-" he had reached out once again, but she took a step back, well, more like stumbled back, but you get the point.

 

"No, no. Zachy has taken me this far, he can take me up to my bedroom." She paused, looking around Jeff at Leah once more, who hasn't lost the rather large blush on her cheeks. "Plus, you have a lady to entertain. Night, man." And with that, she tugged on the sleeve of Zach's sweater twice, and then gestured to the stairs. Good thing he understood what she was trying to say, because she didn't really feel like talking more than necessary.

 

Within 4 steps of the stairs, she was hauled back into his arms, and he took the stairs two at a time, as if making up for lost time.

 

She let out a small chuckle, resting her cheek against his chest. "Annoying you, was I?"

 

"You could never." Was his response, his words coming out soft, and kind, something a lot of the people at Liberty High lacked.

 

She didn't have a response to that, so she only shot him a goofy smile, turning her face away from him. "Second door on the left."

 

And then, within seconds, she was in the comforts of her room, being set down on her bed.

 

Her room was pretty simple, blue walls, posters covering what seemed like every inch of wall she could. Her bed was tucked into the corner of her room, a small desk next to it, and in the center of one of the walls, was a bulletin board. On it had dozens of post it notes, pieces of paper, and what seemed to be random pieces of paper. Just full of momentos, was all.

 

After setting her down on her bed, his eyes wandered, eventually landing on the board. He took a step towards it, reading some of the notes. "What's with this?" He asked, simply, turning around to look at Jack.

 

She just shrugged, she didn't feel like explaining. She did, however, reach to the hem of her shirt, lifting it up and off her head. Zach jumped, quickly covering her eyes. "Jesus, Jack!" He might as well have yelped out.

 

"What? You expect me to sleep in jeans and a long sleeved shirt?" she rolled her eyes, throwing her shirt at him. "Top drawer in my dresser, grab the grey tshirt on top." Zach did so, a little hesistant at first, but uncovered his eyes, grabbing the shirt and handing it to her, looking anywhere but at her.

 

She raises an eyebrow as she took the shirt, any other boy in his place would have a hard time tearing their eyes /off/ her, and here he was, not able to look at her without feeling his cheeks warm up.

 

She flopped down on her bed, as an attempt to make it easier to get her jeans off. Key word attempt, seeing as she failed at doing so. She let out a huff of air, looking back over at Zach.

 

"Zach-" She got his attention, and he looked over, eyes scanning over her toned arms and stomach for a second, before forcing himself to look at her eyes, and only her eyes. "I need help taking my jeans off."

 

He could have sworn his heart had stopped. And, if that had killed him, it honestly wouldn't be the worst way to die.

 

"Zach?" That snapped him back to reality, and he cleared his throat, taking his hands out of his pockets. "Yeah, sure." he managed to mumble out, before walking over. He bent down and helped her shimmy out of her jeans, and then, out of her bra, as much as he didn't want to, and then, finally, helped her put on the oversized tshirt.

 

"Alright, you good?" He asked, shoving his hands back in his pockets. She let out huff of air, nodding slowly. He smiled, before beginning to walk to the door. 

 

"Wait-" She bit down on her lip, guess it was too late to go back. "I know this sounds hella cliche, make fun of me all you want. But, uh, stay the night? Please?

 

And that's how that Saturday night Zach Dempsey found himself in a girl's bed, for nothing other then comfort. And, if he was completly honest, the feeling of Jack's steady breathing as she fell asleep against him, was one of the greatest feelings he'd ever experienced.


End file.
